


Endgame

by buckyismymainman



Series: Avengers Oneshots [74]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death Mentioned, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29705748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckyismymainman/pseuds/buckyismymainman
Summary: What would Endgame have been like if Natasha hadn’t died on Vormir?
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: Avengers Oneshots [74]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1314041
Kudos: 2





	Endgame

**Vormir**

Nat and Clint looked up the mountain and then at one another. “Of course we got stuck with the climb,” Clint grunted. He couldn’t complain much, he could have had to have gone back to New York when the Chitauri attacked.

Nat was thinking the same thing, but she was also thinking about how eerily silent this planet was. She looked around at her new surroundings, gone were the tall skyscrapers of cities she was used to running her missions in, and now in their places were sand dunes and rock. She turned back to Clint as he began climbing and wondered what she would find at the top of the mountain.

What felt like hours later they made it to the top. Natasha felt a shiver go down her spine and she went to say something to Clint when a ghostly figure appeared before them. “Clint son of Edith. Natasha, daughter of Ivan.”

Natasha drew her gun while Clint unsheathed his katana. “Who the hell are you?” She asked.

“A guardian of sorts. Cursed to protect a treasure that I can never possess,” the red-faced figure said.

Clint and Natasha exchanged looks, “You mean the soul stone?”

“Yes,” the guardian said. “Follow me.” He led them to a cliffside with two towering peaks. Natasha looked over the side and saw a flat surface below. She didn’t have a good feeling about this. “To retrieve the stone you must be willing to sacrifice that which you love.”

Clint began questioning the man asking him what the hell that meant, but Natasha knew. Thanos had brought his daughter her only to return without her. He had sacrificed her so that he could get the soul stone. One of them would have to die. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and turned back to Clint. “Clint, I know what he means,” Natasha’s voice didn’t betray the nerves she was feeling. “One of us must die.”

Clint blinked and then looked angry, “No! No that’s bullshit, Nat. I can’t give you up, I’m not sacrificing you to get this damn stone!”

She walked over to him and gripped his shoulders, “Clint listen to me, a lot of people are gonna stay dead unless we do this. We have a chance to bring everyone back, to save a lot of people. I can’t sacrifice you either, but it should be me.” She said. “I’ve been trying to get to this moment for the past five years, figure out a way to save everyone we lost. It’s all come down to this. It has to be me.” She took his hand and gave it a squeeze, “You can have your family back.”

Tears filled his eyes, “Nat, please.”

She gave a laugh, her eyes also brimming with tears, “I never saw it ending like this, you know? I always thought that when the time came I go down in a firefight. Hell, I thought I was gonna die in New York all those years ago. But this… this is a good way to go.”

They were at the edge of the cliff now, Clint was shaking his head, “Don’t ask this of me, Nat. I won’t do it.”

She reached up and wiped his tears, “You’ll tell your kids how much their Auntie Nat loved them, yeah?” He nodded his head not trusting himself to speak. “Do it.”

Clint couldn’t though, Natasha was his best friend, the one person who understood him most in this lifetime. They had been through so much together and he couldn’t lose her too, not like this. But he wasn’t given the choice, there was a flash of light and things disappeared for a moment. When it was gone he and Natasha were in a pool, the soul stone cradled in their joined hands.

Before them was the protector, “The stone has done something I never knew possible.” He was looking at them in amazement. “Your selflessness has been rewarded. Do not fail the stone.” Then he was gone, going back to wherever he was needed.

Natasha and Clint embraced, relief coursing through the two of them. “Let’s go home,” he said.

**Avengers’ Compound**

Relief and excited chatter went around the platform as one by one they returned with the stones they needed to complete their task. They all headed for the laboratory where they would make the gauntlet. The final phase of their plan ready to go.

One by one they stood around Bruce as he put the gauntlet on, groaning in pain at the power surging through his body. They each wanted to go to him but stayed back. And then he snapped his fingers.

At first, nothing seemed different and then a phone began to buzz and birds began to sing. Natasha looked to Steve and he to her. Clint answered his phone to a frantic Laura wondering where the hell he was and what the hell had happened.

Scott was saying something when an explosion happened. Throwing them all off their feet.

Steve and Natasha woke up beside one another, Tony there to help them up. “What the hell happened?” Natasha asked as she swayed on her feet. She had several injuries and probably a concussion, but those were problems to solve later.

“Time is messing back with us,” Tony said cryptically. “Come on.”

They followed him to outside the compound and there sat Thanos. Thor joined them as they looked down on him just sitting there. Thanos could see them, he knew the four of them were watching. “How the hell?” Natasha murmured.

“I don’t really care, but we can’t let him get to the stones,” Tony said.

“I agree,” Thor said. His hands outstretched his hammer and ax appeared in his hands, “Let’s make sure he stays dead this time.”

They went to meet him, dodging the debris from the compound as they went. “So this is what the future is like,” Thanos said as he approached. “I don’t much care for it.”

“We’d be happy to send you back to your own time,” Natasha quipped. “Seeing as how you don’t belong here.”

Thanos studied her for a moment and then stood, picking up his weapon. “I’m going to finish what I started, but this time I’m going to make sure that it can’t be undone.”

The four couldn’t wait anymore. They had to take care of Thanos before he could get his hands on those stones. Together they attacked and took hits. He was stronger than they were, but there were four of them against one of him. He had to give some time.

Natasha was the first to be taken out, then Tony. Thor fell and just when it seemed all hope was lost for him Steve holding Thor’s hammer attacked Thanos. Natasha pushed herself up and watched in amazement as Steve took on Thanos along with Thor. The two of them were blasted back and Natasha scrambled over to them to make sure they were okay.

Steve rolled onto his knees, Natasha’s hands at his back. Thor also struggling to get up, his body aching. Thanos stood back knowing that he would be the victor. His armies coming forward waiting for their master to give the order and finish off the humans. The three of them and Tony rose to their feet and prepared for a second round with the mad titan. But that’s when they froze. In their ears, they heard a voice.

“Steve, it’s Sam,” and Natasha could have cried hearing it. Steve stood there frozen feeling relief surge through him. “On your left.”

A portal opened and three figures stepped through it. T’Challa, Shuri, and Okoye, along with the Wakandan army, some of whom had fallen when Thanos snapped his fingers. Then more portals opened and all the fallen heroes returned. They all shared a look, one saying they were glad to see one another, but they knew that this fight wasn’t over yet.

“Avengers!” Steve shouted. “Assemble!”

Cries rang out and they raced to meet Thanos’s army. As one they fought and played keep away as they tried desperately to make sure that Thanos didn’t get his hands on the gauntlet. Peter was the last one with it. Racing desperately to get it to the van with the last quantum tunnel so that they could return the stones to their time.

He was almost there when a fury of explosions backed him into a corner. Carol was there to get the gauntlet and when Peter saw what she had to get it through he asked her how she was going to do it.

Natasha appeared, “Don’t worry.”

“She’s got help,” Okoye finished as she, Pepper, Mantis, Hope, Wanda, Valkyrie, Gamora, Shuri, and Nebula joined Carol and Peter.

With that, they all raced toward the army. Fighting off the masses together.

Unfortunately, the quantum tunnel was destroyed. Carol tried to keep the gauntlet away from Thanos, but he managed to put it on and fight her off. That was when Tony came in and grabbed the stones. He proclaimed that he was Iron Man and snapped his fingers, dusting Thanos and his army.

The Avengers surrounded him in his final moments. Steve holding onto Natasha as she and the others cried over their fallen friend.

**A Week Later**

“Are you sure about this?” Pepper asked. “I thought this would cause problems.”

“We’re already messed up a lot of things in the past,” Natasha told her. “What’s one more thing?”

She and Clint were standing on the quantum tunnel together, Steve with them. They were going back before they went back in time to retrieve Tony. “It isn’t fair that Morgan should grow up without her dad.”

And consequences be damned that’s exactly what they did. They went back before they went back in time and kidnapped Tony. They caught him up on everything and brought him to the present. Pepper upon seeing the husband that she had lost cried and Tony was quick to hug her. He may not have died yet in his branch of time, but he knew that it had happened in this one and he couldn’t stand to see Pepper cry.

“So what now?” Natasha asked her friends as they went to meet up with the others for lunch.

“Now we do what we always do,” Steve said. “We help others and we help heal this world after its traumatic past.”

And together they stepped into the new future they had fought and almost died for.


End file.
